May 2015

Viola Rothschild is a Fulbright Scholar at Zhejiang University in Jinhua where she is pursuing research on African entrepreneurs in China. She is a recent graduate of Bowdoin College in the United States and currently blogs on her experiences in China on her website, Sinophiles.

Zha Jianying is a writer, journalist, and cultural commentator in both English and Chinese. She is the author of two books in English, Tide Players: The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China (named “One of the best books of 2011” by The Economist), and China Pop: How Soap Operas, Tabloids and Bestsellers Are Transforming a Culture, and six books of non-fiction and fiction in Chinese, the most recent being Freedom Is Not Free (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2020). Her work has appeared widely in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Dushu, and Wanxiang. Tide Players was selected by The Economist as “One of the Best Books of 2011.” China Pop was selected by The Village Voice as “One of the 25 Best Books of 1995.” Her Chinese book in 2006, Bashiniandai (The Eighties), was selected as the “Best Book of the Year” by numerous mainland Chinese publications A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she also has been a regular commentator on current events on Chinese television, and works as the China Representative of the India China Institute at The New School in New York. Born and raised in Beijing, educated in China and the U.S., she lives in Beijing and New York.